To Wed a Princess
by BigTimeBabyDoll
Summary: Neither Merida nor Hiccup want anything to do with an arranged marriage. What kind of harebrained scheme can come of this? (Summary stinks, please read.)
1. The Deal

҉

I knew right away by the tone of his voice that this was not going to be good. With the realization that dragons weren't the enemy, my dad was becoming a bit softer. Now, his voice held all of the cold, harsh, roughness that it used to.

"Hiccup, we need to talk," he stated matter-of-factly.

I nodded. "Alright, so talk."

"Alone," he amended, looking straight at Astrid who was sitting beside me.

Even she picked up that this wasn't going to be good. She packed up her things and with just a quick peck on the cheek, she was out.

"What's so important, Dad?" I asked, a little more than ticked off.

He sighed and sat down across the way. "Hiccup, we received a letter from the Queen."

"What did she want?"

"The princess has come of age," he told me as if that were supposed to mean something. My lack of reaction prompted him to continue. "The laws of the land state that the first born of the great clan leaders must be presented as suitors for her betrothal."

That I understood.

"So what? Because this girl turned a certain age, I'm expected to leave life in Berk behind to parade around in front of her like a show pony? I thought we didn't answer to the crown, anyway."

"The King and Queen don't bother us with trivial matter," he told me. "This is much more than trivial, Hiccup. Whoever marries the princess will be King one day."

"Great," I snapped sarcastically. "So let one of the other clan leaders' sons become king/"

"I will not have some idiot sitting on the throne."

"So you expect me to leave Berk? Leave Astrid? Leave Toothless? Dad, we're tasked with keeping an eye on the dragons and making sure they don't travel to the mainland and towards the palace. Dragons aren't allowed in DunBroch. How could you expect me to just forget about everything here?"

He grumbled something before looking at me sternly. "I have already sent word back to the Queen that we will be in attendance. I will not go back on my word and I expect you to do the same. We leave tomorrow for DunBroch and that is final."

҉

"Suitors? Marriage?" It all sounded so ridiculous. She expected me to get married to someone I didn't even know.

"Once there was an ancient kingdom," she started. Everything always turns into a lesson with her.

I sighed and slid down onto the bed. "Aw, Mum, ancient kingdom?"

She continued as if I said nothing, as usual. "It's name long forgotten, ruled by a wise and fair king who was much beloved. And when he grow old he divided his kingdom among his four sons; that they should be the pillars on which the peace of the land rested. But, the oldest prince wanted to rule the land for himself. He followed his own path and the kingdom fell to war and chaos and ruin."

"That a nice story," I quipped sarcastically. Did she honestly think that a tale like that would change my mind?

"It's not just a story, Merida," she said calmly. "Legends are lessons; they ring with truths."

She went on to tell me that I couldn't do anything to change the fact that the lords were coming. I just had to accept my fate. I don't know how she can expect me to just sit by while she ruined my life.

Lord Macintosh, Lord MacGuffin, Lord Dingwall, and Lord Haddock were all coming to present their sons to me. Well great. Four men I knew nothing about and want nothing to do with. And I have to marry one of them. I swear, if I have anything to say about this, a wedding will not happen.

I decided to go out and take care of Angus, maybe that would get my mind off of what I was being forced into.

҉

We arrived at DunBroch the next day around the same time as the other clans. They were all a bunch of chest pounders. Reminded me a lot of home, to be honest.

I looked up to the castle as we sailed closer. If I won I would have to live here. No more Berk, no more vast ocean, no more dragons, and that all meant no more Toothless. There was no way I wanted to win this competition.

We marched in with the other clans and stood our ground. My father stood at the front of the group, I was right behind him, and somewhere among the crowd were my friends. Well, all but one. Astrid hadn't talked to me since I told her the news. I tried to tell her that it wasn't my choice but she didn't want to hear any of it. That Viking stubbornness was a real pain in the butt sometimes.

I took a moment to look over the royal family. On the left sat the three princes, though I really couldn't tell you which one was which. Next to them, looking very prim, proper, and put together was the queen. Judging by the state of everyone else, she was obviously the one who kept the castle from crashing in on itself. The king was a big burly man whose size rivaled that of my own father. If he wasn't a Scot, I swear he could be a Viking easily. He even had the whole one leg thing going on that Gobber and I sported.

At the far right, closest to the Clan of the Vikings, sat the princess. She was all tucked away in her proper little dress, sitting at attention, waiting for the suitors. This was probably the day of her life. Four men competed for her hand. They got to live in her castle and continue on with her life afterward. She looked like she trained her whole life for this. I swear, if I was stuck marrying someone like that I would scream. I was into adventurous girls, girls who could fight, girls who didn't really care what they looked like. This was going to be a long competition for me.

Once the four clans were settled around the hall, King Fergus stood to address the group. "So, here we are! The five clans! Uh…gathering…uh…for…"

Obviously, King Fergus was not very eloquent. He stumbled and stuttered to find his words as Queen Eleanor stood up to take over. "The presentation of the suitors!" she finished for him. He copied her words right after her as if he knew what he was supposed to say all along.

"Clan Macintosh!"

There was a loud roar of "Macintosh" back from the clan itself. Once the noise died down, Lord Macintosh stepped forward, his son at his heels. "Your majesty, I present my heir and sire, who defended our land from the northern invaders and, with his own sword, stabbed and vanquished thousands foes!" Young Macintosh swung his sword about, showing off his muscles and hair as he did so, trying to put on a show for the princess. I was pleasantly surprised to see the princess showing little to no interest as she pulled her headpiece down over her eyes.

"Clan MacGuffin!"

Again, a roar from the clan. "Your majesty, I present my eldest son, who scuttled the Viking war ships with his bare hands. Vanquishes two thousand foes." You MacGuffin nervously snapped a log in half with his brute strength.

I heard my father scoff loudly at MacGuffin's accomplishments. We had an agreement with the land due to the dragon situation but that didn't mean that other Viking tribes weren't fair game to the Scots. If it weren't for the dragons even we wouldn't get along very well with these Highlanders.

"Clan Haddock!"

The tribe sat mostly silent, no roar of clan pride like the others. My father stepped forward and I stood reluctantly by his side. I had no show of skills for them so I kind of just stood there as he talked about me. "Your majesty, I present my son, who turned around the dragon problem all on his own and trained the beasts to obey us rather than we fear them."

The other clan leaders turned their heads in disgust. It was obvious they didn't believe the tale my father was telling. But nobody was willing to call Stoic the Vast out on lies.

"Clan Dingwall!"

Once again, they erupted with an echo of "Dingwall!" Scrawny Lord Dingwall gestured to the big burly man beside him. "I present my only son, who was besieged by ten thousand Romans and he took out a whole armada single handedly. With one arm, he was…" He stopped and looked angrily at the man next to him. He reached behind him and pulled out a kid even scrawnier than I was. And that's saying something. "With one arm, he was steering the ship, and with the other he held his mighty sword and struck down a whole attacking fleet."

"Lies!" someone in the crowd shouted. They had no problem calling him out, however.

"What?! I heard that!" said Lord Dingwall, angrily searching the crowd. "Aye! Say it to my face! Or are you scared simpering jackanapes afraid to muss your pretty hair?"

I could easily see where this was going and it wasn't anywhere pleasant. Nor was it unfamiliar. Eventually, everyone was in on the scuffle. King Fergus had tried to tear them all apart but was just drawn in himself. It ended with Queen Eleanor dragging my father along with the four other leaders back to the front of the hall.

"Now then," she continued. "Where were we? Ah, yes. In accordance with our laws, by the rights of our heritage, only the first born of the great leaders may be presented as champion." I saw the princess sit up a little straighter at this news. I looked curiously from her to the queen. "And thus, compete for the hand of the princess of DunBroch. To win the fair maiden, they must prove their worth by feats of strength or arms in the games. It is customary that the challenge be determined by the princess herself."

The princess shot right out of her seat and shouted "Archery! Archery!" We all looked at her, a little dumbfounded. I chuckled to myself. Well at least she has spirit, for a moment. She looked around the room at all of us before standing at attention and folding her arms in front of her before repeating calmly, "I choose archery."

The queen nodded before turning to the rest of us. "Let the games begin!"

҉

If the first born could compete that meant that I could compete as well, didn't it? Young Macintosh was far too arrogant to ever win my love. Wee Dingwall was just odd. Young MacGuffin had an interesting strength but you couldn't understand a word he said with that accent of his. And then there was Young Haddock. He didn't say a word or show off his skills. Honestly, you're in a competition and you don't even try? That or you don't have skills. Either way, how could I love someone like that?

We sat in our thrones as the archery tournament began. Mother and Father announced the start as they Lords' sons lined up to take their shots. There were four targets set up a fair distance away from each of them. Wee Dingwall was playing his bow like it was a harp. Honestly, one of them were supposed to marry me? I don't think so.

Young MacGuffin shot first, hitting the far outside rim of the target board but missing the real target itself. "I bet he wishes he was tossing cabers," I joked to my father.

He laughed and agreed. "Or holding up bridges." Mother smacked him as the arm but that didn't stop our chuckling.

Next was Young Macintosh. Before firing he flipped his hair, making the girls behind him squeal. Good, one of them can have him. I'll have nothing to do with him. He fired and hit the target on the third rim, throwing a tantrum in missing the center. "Oh, that's attractive." He threw his bow far back into the crowd, resigning to defeat. Honestly, with Dingwall and Haddock left, he might actually still have a chance.

Wee Dingwall was next. He dumped out all of his arrows just to get to one, and it took him a while to get the arrowhead to stay on the bow. Father got rather impatient but it didn't pay off well for him. As he snapped at Dingwall, the arrow went flying and hit the middle target, just barely missing the center.

We all groaned as we knew that was probably the best that anyone was going to get. We had an alliance with the four other clans but out of them all, Dingwall was probably of the most annoyance.

Finally, we were down to the last suitor and almost time for my plan to go into action. But Young Haddock was sitting on the ground with a book and pen. He was scrawling a bunch of things down before finally picking up his bow. I'll admit, it intrigued me enough to stay in my seat and watch how it panned out.

He raised the bow, felt the wind, and in one slightly awkward pull of the bow, he managed to hit the dead center of the target. How, I may never know. But maybe it wouldn't be so bad to give a man with archery skills a try.

Still, why chance it?

҉

Using math actually paid off. After successfully hitting the center of the target, I looked over to the royal family only to notice the princess slipping out of her seat. Not a few moments later, a cloaked figure appeared on the field, closest to Young MacGuffin. She threw back her hood and revealed the princess, her hair now a fiery red mess all around her.

"I am Merida!" she announced to everyone. "First born of the Clan DunBroch. And I'll be shooting for my own hand."

The Queen looked on in disgust and quickly went to reprimand her daughter. Merida, deciding her dress offered limited mobility, bent over and ripped it at practically all of the seams, effectively getting rid of any ideas of her being a '_proper young lady_'. She shot at MacGuffin's target and easily hit the center of the target. She moved on as the Queen followed her, trying to catch up. The princess again shot at Macintosh's target and landed in the dead center. She moved on to Dingwall and did the same, all the while, being chased by her mother.

She got to my target and stood nearly right next to me, her wild mane almost touching my face. This close, you could see the focus, determination, and concentration on her face. She was like no princess you'd ever read about in a story. Clearly she takes after her father more than her mother. With a deep breath she aimed at the target and let the arrow fly. We all held our breath as the arrow drew nearer until finally _CRACK!_ dead on, splitting my arrow in two.

In that moment, Queen Eleanor was on top of her. Luckily so was my father. He was just as sick of these stupid Highlander fights and rules as I was. He was able to quietly talk down the Queen, a skill I didn't know he had. Instead of the princess possibly getting the beating of her life, her punishment was now to spend a few hours locked in a room with me. Great. How that punishment seemed to fit the crime is beyond me. Maybe they thought that by locking us together she will be forced to face her victor and forced to fall in love with him. Wait, fall in love with me. Wait, I won? Oh this is not good. I got so caught up in the moment that I didn't think. All I could think was to prove myself. I was sick of being the weakling among the Vikings. It backfired however and I won the hand of the fair maiden. If you ask me, the princess seemed as far away from a fair maiden as you could get.

҉

"This is so unfair," she screeched pacing the room. "Why do I have to get married anyway? If war is the issue then let us go to war. We can handle it."

I sat on the bed and just looked on as she ranted. "Look, princess, I'm not so thrilled about this either. I left a life behind in Berk, friends, family, everything I had. And I'm expected to give that all up because of some stupid archery contest."

"Don't call me princess," she chided. "My name is Merida. That's it. None of this princess stuff. I don't want to be a princess anymore. I never wanted to be a princess. It's a real pain in the butt."

I rolled my eyes. "Sure, you're complaining about your life. Back home, I was a laughing stock. Everyone always told me I need to just fix '_this_'." I gestured to myself from head to toe as everyone always did.

"You just gestured to all of yourself," she noted.

"Exactly!" I sighed, flopping back onto the bed.

She rolled her eyes at my exaggeration. "Young Haddock-"

"Please," I groaned. "If I can't call you Princess, you can't call me '_Young Haddock_'. My name's Hiccup. I know, not the most glorious of names but whatever. It's the one I've got. Son of the feared Stoic the Vast and my name is Hiccup." She giggled at my name. I knew she would. Everyone who didn't know me always did. Everyone in Berk knew me so it had been a while since I'd felt the full humiliation of my name.

"Well then Hiccup, since I don't want to marry you and you clearly don't want to marry me, why are we even entertaining the idea?"

"Have you tried to argue with my dad?" I asked rhetorically. "It never works out in my favor. The conversations are either one sided or just end with more arguing and fighting that is really no good for anyone. Besides, Astrid doesn't want to talk to me anymore. What's the point of going back?" I hadn't really thought about Astrid too much since everything started and that was really starting to worry me. I really cared for Astrid, but suddenly she was slipping my thoughts? Because of what? I was distracted by the prin-by Merida? And knowing Astrid, she'd probably never talk to me again. I sighed even louder as my body began to slink down to the floor.

"Who is Astrid?" Merida asked, sitting down on the ground next to me.

It was hard to believe that she was suddenly interested but I shrugged and sat up, facing her. "Astrid is the most beautiful girl in all of Berk. And, if it hadn't been for my way with dragons, she would have been named the strongest out of my entire class. Granted our class is only six of us but still."

"She sounds wonderful," she sighed.

I just nodded. "She's about as feisty as you are. She would have pulled the same stunt if she were in your shoes."

After a moment of thought, Merida's face lit up with an idea. "Hey Hiccup, since neither of us wants this wedding to happen, why don't we just tell everyone we agree and then keep up the planning long enough that we never actually have the wedding?" I thought about it. If I were engaged, Astrid probably still wouldn't talk to me. At this point, I think Astrid and I were over no matter what happened. I really had nothing to lose except for Toothless. But if we stayed engaged long enough people might forget about the marriage. "Of course, in planning you would have to stay here in DunBroch. But we could find a way to get you home soon."

It was the only plan we had so far so it looked like it had to work. I nodded and we shook on it. That was the closest to a mock proposal as we were going to get.

"I just have one more question," she snapped. "What was with that book out on the archery range?"

I shrugged. "Just trying to figure out some numbers. It helped me know where to point the arrow to get a bull's-eye with my limited Viking strength." I tried flexing but of course it still left no change in my '_muscles_'.


	2. Bonding?

**Heyo. So, first off, to my guest reviewers that I couldn't respond to personally:**

**Guest: I want to set the record straight. I love Astrid. And if it weren't for Merida, Hiccup and Astrid would be my favorite thing ever. But Astrid **_**is**_** a Viking. Hiccup has mentioned Viking stubbornness before and that's always apparent when he's on the outs with someone. (Also, Bless.) You're right, she is no Hans. But she's a female. She's hurt. Would you like to see the man, er, boy you love being married off to some princess? Probably not. And here's Hiccup. Now he's won? He's engaged to Merida. In his mind, why would Astrid want him back? So, I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to trash Astrid. And she will come into play again later so I hope that will be alright. Also, I've recently started watching **_**Riders of Berk**_** (I know, behind the curve) and so I'm getting a lot of Hiccstrid feels again. But as I am trying hard to avoid Hiccstrid in this story I'm trying to get her out of the way in the only way I know how: simply not be in the picture.**

**shalalala: Yes it is technically a Mericcup fic. It's my idea of how they met. Considering they're both from Scotland, it just seemed fitting that they met each other before meeting Jack and Rapunzel. I ship all ways with the big four. But Jackunzel and Mericcup are my biggest. (Hijack is second.) Stay tuned for the sequel (after I finish this one) to see when they meet Jack and Rapunzel.**

**Okay, are we good with that? Good. Here's my next chapter. It's kind of a thing that needed to be done but I didn't really want to write it.**

* * *

I took a deep breath and looked at Hiccup. This was our plan it was going to work. I knew it was. I mean, I thought of it after all. Why wouldn't it work? He nodded at me, allowing me to steal my courage and we shoved the great doors open and walked into the grand hall. Instantly, Mother's attention was on me. I marched forward with a confidence that helped me to lie to my mother.

"Mum," I stated using the powerful princess voice which she taught me. "We have come to a decision. I will marry Hiccup on the condition that we get to make all of the decisions about the wedding."

"All of the decisions?" she questioned.

"Everything." If I wasn't insistent she would follow through.

She glanced toward Dad and Stoic. They both shrugged, obviously not caring about the detail of the actual marriage itself. "Very well," she nodded, crossing over to us. "You two may do whatever you like for your wedding." She smiled warmly and hugged me. "I'm so proud of you my wee lass."

As she pulled me away I tried to smile up at her, feeling a pang of guilt. Stepping away, I looked once again at Hiccup who merely smiled. Stoic, however, didn't looks so pleased. This is the conclusion they were all hoping for, right? I mean, if he didn't want his son engaged to the princess, why did he let him compete? Why bring him to the castle at all for that matter?

"We should probably get going," Hiccup suggested with a cough, the tension radiating from his father growing uncomfortable.

"Why don't you go introduce him to Angus," dad suggested with a bright smile. He knew what I loved. He knew that riding Angus was one of my favorite things to do. Dad could sense the unease around the room and at least tried to make it easier for me. I always appreciated that about Dad. I'd have to do something for him soon. Eager to get to what I knew, I grabbed Hiccup's hand and practically dragged him along to the stables.

* * *

At the mention of this '_Angus_' Merida got really excited. She had such a spirit within her that really did remind me of Astrid. I pictured Astrid finding something in the forest and getting really excited about it, dragging me through the trees with a bright smile on her face, her blonde braid blowing behind her with the speed of her run. She'd pull me through trees and over logs almost causing me to trip and fall on my face but her strong grip stopped that from ever happening. We'd get to the small cove where I met Toothless and she let go of my hand, gesturing to the pond and rocks behind her.

"Hiccup, this is Angus."

The thick accent made me think twice about what I was seeing. I blinked a few times and my normal vision returned to me. It wasn't Astrid, it was Merida that was leading me around. And it wasn't the cove we had gotten to, it was the royal stables. Merida was gesturing behind her to the giant black horse sitting in the stall closest to the entrance to the castle. The horse whinnied at me and brushed my face with his nuzzle.

"Hey there," I cooed, scratching his chin gently. I had to remind myself that this was a horse and not a dragon. You couldn't scratch a horse's skin as hard as you could scratch a dragon's scales. I'd forgotten what it was like to have a squishy pet. Toothless' biggest weakness was inside of his mouth. If you hit him virtually anywhere else he'd come out relatively unscathed. With Angus it wasn't like that. If I dug my nails in hard enough I could probably make him bleed.

At the same time, however, dragons and horses seemed to have a lot in common. With the right thing you could get them to flop down in glee. Dragonnip was just grass but I honestly couldn't tell you what it was for a horse. Scratching under their chin seemed pleasurable for both species. The difference was that a dragon was basically at your mercy when you hit just the right spot. And I'm sure there were plenty of things you could use to scare a horse into submission. For dragons, that leverage was eels.

Looking back and forth between me and the horse, Merida's smile only seemed to widen. I could tell she was glad the horse and I were getting along. "D'you want to take him out with me?" she asked eagerly. I shrugged, not knowing what else we were going to do. She easily jumped right up onto the saddle, reaching her hand down for me as soon as she was set. It was weird riding behind someone and I'll admit, and it was a little awkward having to wrap my arms around her waist to stay on.

We rode out from the castle and straight to the forest. Along the way we passed targets strung from the trees, some of them with arrows still stuck in the center. She must have practiced here all the time. There was even one knot high in a tree that was just brimming with arrows. She didn't stop riding until we found ourselves surrounded by large boulders sticking straight out of the ground. Of course, where there were curious rocks there were sure to be curious Vikings.

"I bet I could break that open with my head," one of them said as we got into earshot.

"How about we don't try that theory out," I suggested, jumping off of the horse and over to my friends. Tuffnut looked disappointed as I shot down his idea.

Snotlout was instantly on my heels about the situation, not caring about the company. "So, Hiccup, Astrid's fair game now that you and her are completely over, right?"

"Very funny," I mocked. "Just you wait, I'll be back in Berk before you know it." He rolled his eyes and just walked away, trying to start a conversation with Fishlegs so that he didn't have to talk to me.

The twins came over to Merida and I then, a devious smile on their faces. "So how much trouble would we be in if Barf and Belch showed up right here?"

Merida looked at me curiously. "Who are Barf and Belch supposed to be then?"

I sighed. "That's the name of Ruffnut and Tuffnut's dragon," I told her, hoping and praying that the whole owning dragons thing didn't freak her out too much. She simply nodded with wide eyes, her mouth agape but not saying anything. "And you two would be in more trouble than any of us have ever been in our lives. Dragons aren't supposed to reach the mainland, remember? That's the deal with DunBroch."

"But doesn't that deal involve DunBroch not bothering us about anything?" Ruffnut asked.

"Yeah," agreed Tuffnut. "It looks like they didn't hold up their end of the bargain."

Before I could retort with some sarcastic remark, Snotlout shouted out for the edge of the glen. "If we're going to explore this entire forest before nightfall then we'd better get going!"

"If you hit the creek you've gone too far," Merida warned. "Past that is the land of the demon bear, Mor'du."

"Thanks for the tip," Snotlout dismissed sarcastically. Once again I rolled my eyes at him. Once the four of them had retreated farther into the woods, I resigned myself to a nice little rest on the grass. With a quick flop to the ground I felt like I could go to sleep right there. I heard Merida giggle but she didn't bother to stop me.

* * *

It was more than a little odd to see a Viking sleeping. He seemed so innocent and harmless. But then again, he was a scrawny little thing. I could probably pick him up with my pinky. There was something about him that made him not completely repulsive however. I couldn't quite place my finger on what it was. He _seemed _like most of the other suitors, but he was different, I could tell. Don't get me wrong, there was still no way I was getting married. But at least faking an engagement wouldn't be so terrible.

He was odd even for Viking standards. If I remembered correctly, Vikings named their children with pride. The toughest name went to the toughest child. The runt of the litter, not necessarily actually named, always had the nickname of '_a hiccup_'. Stoic the Vast went so far as to actually name his son Hiccup. I couldn't tell if that was cruel or humorous.

I looked at him laying down and smiled, resigning to sit right next to him and look up at the clouds. There were so many different shapes and sizes to them. Some of them even looked like things. One looked like a bear and another near it resembled a fish. I saw an arrow, a spear, and even one that looked like me. Well, I guess any cloud that was out of control looked like my hair.

I sat there for what could have been a few minutes or a few hours, I wouldn't know the difference. It felt nice to just sit. Usually when I didn't have princess lessons, I would go out and practice archery. With the presentation of the suitors behind me, I suppose I'd have less lessons and more free time. But I looked at the ground next to me at the still sleeping figure and sighed. It seemed like all of my free time now would be expected to be with Hiccup.

I sighed and closed my eyes. No sooner than I had done so did I feel an arm snake around my middle and pull me closer. "You know, you're really beautiful when you're sad like that." He startled me a bit that I jumped and made him drop his arm. He looked at me apologetically as he sat up. "I'm sorry, Princess. I didn't mean to…I just spoke my mind. I'm sorry if I overstepped my boundaries."

"No, it's fine," I breathed out. "You just startled me is all. I thought you were still asleep."

He shook his head, running his fingers through his hair, making sure he didn't have bed-head. "I woke up just a few minutes ago. So, Merida, what's bothering you?"

Could I be so cruel to tell him that he was my issue? I mean, it wasn't really him that was the issue. It was the situation that was bothering me. I'm sure if I met him and was told to make friends on my own terms that he and I would get along just grand. But that's not how it was. He was my betrothed now. I was tied down to him until I could figure out a way to actually make this blow over. I just shook my head and stood up, going over to grab Angus. "We should get back to the castle," I sighed. "They'll be wondering where we went."

* * *

We rode back in mostly silence. I don't know what I was thinking when I woke up. I guess that was just it, I wasn't thinking. It was a moment where I felt like Snotlout. That is not a feeling I _ever_ want to have again. We didn't get back to the castle until it was nearly dark. As we rode over the bridge, I could faintly see something hiding in the shadows. It looked as though there were two beady green eyes down there. Once back to the stables I hopped off of the horse pretty fast.

"Is everything alright, Hiccup?" Merida asked me.

I just waved her off. "Go ahead inside without me, I'll be back soon. There's something I want to go see first."

I could tell she questioned my sanity but she just nodded and went back inside. I had to sneak past a few guards to get back out to the bridge and then it was a little bit of a climb down before I was in the trench and away from the guards altogether. I looked around the bottom, knowing that what I was searching for would come to me soon enough.

Sure thing, in the blackest part of the trench I was the green eyes again. They lunged at me full speed and the creature knocked me flat on my back, licking my face over a thousand times.

It took a little bit before I could get him to back off but finally I could stand and see him. "Toothless," I hissed. "What are you doing here? Dragons aren't allowed on the mainland, especially not this close to the castle. If anyone finds you here we're both dead."

He looked at me curiously before his expression turned sad.

"What is it, Bud?" He turned his head back to the dark corner. Hiding there I saw two more beady eyes, wider set and with smaller pupils. At closer inspection I could see blue scales and large horns. "Stormfly? Great, so we have two disobedient dragons in DunBroch. Wait until Mildew gets word of this." Stormfly looked at me, troubled. The only logical reason I could think of them being here would be something wrong with Astrid. Normally Toothless wouldn't care too much about the emotions of others, aside from myself. For him to be concerned about Astrid, things must really be going south fast.

"Bud, I can't go home right now," I told Toothless. "I have to stay here and please my dad. But you two can't be here. I promise, I'll be back to check on Astrid as soon as I can. But right now, you need to get her out of here and go back home."

Sadly, he understood. With heads hung low, he and Stormfly started to walk out of the trench, away from the castle, and back towards Berk. Let's just hope no one else saw them.

* * *

"There you are!" I tried to sound enthusiastic and '_in love_' as Hiccup entered the great hall. "Did you find what you were looking for?" He nodded, not bothering to speak.

Stoic cleared his throat from the other end of the dining table. "Son, I have something to discuss with you," he announced.

"Normally when you have something to '_discuss_' with me it ends with my point of view being completely ignored by your stubbornness," Hiccup sighed as he sat down next to me. "But go on, I would love to hear it."

"As you know, I left Gobber and Spitelout in charge back in Berk."

Hiccup's eyes widened. "You left those two in charge? Why not just put another torch to the armory now?"

"That's exactly my point," Stoic said harshly. "I need to head back to Berk and make sure everything is still alright. You must remain here to continue with your wedding preparations." His eyes narrowed at the last two words. Again, if you didn't want to marry him off you shouldn't have let him compete.

"Dad, you can't just leave me here and go back to Berk," Hiccup argued. "It's not fair. I didn't even get to say goodbye, to anyone."

"You can say goodbye to everyone before the rest of the tribe heads back tomorrow."

"Dad, what about Astrid?" he asked. "She's still on Berk and I didn't get to say goodbye to her. You know she was my first friend after Toothless. I can't just leave Berk without saying goodbye to her."

Mum cleared her throat, earning the attention of everyone in the room. "Stoic, your boy is right," she said calmly.

"I am?" Hiccup questioned, the same time his father said "He is?"

"Why don't we all travel to Berk together to tell you tribe the news of Hiccup's betrothal?" she suggested. "That way, he can say goodbye to everyone and we get to deliver the news in person. Plus, I'm sure some people will want to meet the happy new couple."

"That sounds just grand, Mum," I sighed sarcastically. "Do I need to remind you that Berk is infested with dragons?"

"I wouldn't call it '_infested_'," Hiccup corrected me. "More like integrated."

"Ina-what now?" Honestly, did he have to use such big words? For a hiccup, his brain was more trouble than it was worth.

Dad laughed as he looked eagerly at Stoic. "I think it would be fun to see a dragon first hand," he smiled.

Mum nodded. And much like it always was, that nod was the final say on the matter. Tomorrow we headed for Berk so that Hiccup could see his girlfriend and everyone could meet me. I guarantee tomorrow would be awkward.


End file.
